


Snapshots of Ten Years in Her Life.

by Bates



Series: SPN writing Challenge entries [4]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Ballet, Childhood, F/M, Growing Up, dog mention, mention of child loss, mention of death and abandonment, mention of religion, mostly canon verse, with some alterations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-31
Updated: 2016-07-31
Packaged: 2018-07-28 12:03:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7639489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bates/pseuds/Bates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As Claire ages, Jimmy promises himself he’ll remember small things about each age, little snapshots of the ten years he sees his baby girl grow up. He writes them in their photo albums.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snapshots of Ten Years in Her Life.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the supernatural writing challenge over on Tumblr, filling the prompt _Waterslide_.

** **

**Year One.** _Claire sleeps in his arms;_  chest rising and falling and rising and falling. The house is quiet, for the first time in what feels like weeks and all Jimmy can do is stare at his little girl, let her hold his finger and pray she’ll stay this small for a little bit longer. When she giggles and laughs for the very first time, his heart just  _melts._

 **Year Two.** _But kids grow up_ and they walk and start to talk. She grows, explores and still runs for her mother when something scares her. At Church, she’s quiet and patient. She looks up at the pastor and stays still when he traces a cross across his skin. Jimmy especially loves the mornings, when she’ll cling and stay on his lap as he drinks his coffee and she her milk. She’ll pretend to read the paper when he does. Claire loves coloring all over the finance pages and pull faces at them. Jimmy should be angry with her, but he can’t help but agree.

 **Year Three.** _Her hair starts to curl at age three._ Amelia smiles and runs her fingers through her hair, even if their Claire wants nothing but to run around and be free. They go to the waterpark for the very first time and she insists on holding his hand while climbing up the stairs to the water slide; she sits in his lap and laughs and laughs and laughs. ‘Again papa! Again!’ He complies each time, with Amelia watching from the side, the camera pointed at the two of them.

 **Year Three.** _Her hair starts to curl at age three._ Amelia smiles and runs her fingers through her hair, even if their Claire wants nothing but to run around and be free. They go to the waterpark for the very first time and she insists on holding his hand while climbing up the stairs to the water slide; she sits in his lap and laughs and laughs and laughs. ‘Again papa! Again!’ He complies each time, with Amelia watching from the side, the camera pointed at the two of them.

 **Year Four.** _She walks up the steps to her school building for the very first time._ Amelia is crying when their daughter just grins and waves them goodbye. Claire changes her mind, runs back to them and whispers ‘ _Momma, no sad! I’ll be back soon’_ before running back to the doors of her classroom. His wife asks him on the way back how it’s possible their daughter is comforting  _them._  ‘We have a smart little girl,’ he promises quietly and holds her close. ‘She’ll have so many stories to tell.’

 **Year Five.** _She’s not as graceful dancing on wobbly legs, but she loves it._ Amelia drives her to ballet twice a week and Claire adores it. He remembers her first performance, the little sparkly tutus and leotards. Kids trip and Claire too slips up on the routine, but she powers through, bows with the rest of the group,  _grinning_. If there’s anything he wants to remember about her year, it’s  _this_. Their girl, grinning and happy, feeling more confident in herself than he’s ever seen her.

 **Year Six.** _Claire falls asleep curled up in her mother’s arms each night for a solid month._ Jimmy doesn’t have the heart to tell her why her momma is upset, why she barely leaves her bed for two weeks and looks so rough around the edges. He just...can’t. But Claire is clever, Claire knows to press a kiss to the top of her head and promise her momma everything will be okay. He drives her to dance and school; on Sundays, they both sit in the back teary eyed while she holds both of their hands tight.  _Light a candle for the sibling she never got to have._ One morning, she tells them over breakfast she’s sorry they lost the baby, a phrase she must have picked up along the way.   
Amelia smiles, eyes red at the mention, hugs her close and tells her it’s okay, that it was not meant to be.

 **Year Seven.** _She officially becomes a member of their Church when she has her First Communion._ Claire’s smiling as she folds her hands, receives her first Eucharist and says ‘Amen’. The Church is quiet enough for them to hear her words where they’re sitting. They frame her picture and put it on the mantlepiece, next to her dance pictures and family photos. At the breakfast table, she tells them about their days and about the songs they sing in Sunday school. Her tales start getting clearer and clearer each week, each month.

 **Year Eight.** _They get her a little puppy_. He’s energetic and small enough to temp her, to have her running after him and have them laughing. They go on walks together, Buster (the name they give him) running back and forth when they’re seperated, making sure everyone is still there and no one is left behind. She insists he should be there when she has dance performances and while they can’t bring him in, he’s always there, waiting in the car. Jimmy feels affection tug at his heart each time they’re reunited.

 **Year Nine.** _Claire still wants him to watch while she goes down waterslides._ For the scary ones, she insists he should be there, that he needs to go down with her. At least the first time. The second time, she makes him promise to go right behind her and either the third or fourth time, she’ll go by herself, making him wait at the bottom for her. She’d growing, becoming more beautiful and smart and clever each year. Even when Amelia grows scared of him, even when angels call on him, she trusts him,  _loves_ him.

 **Year Ten.** _Claire is asking where her father is._ Amelia doesn’t want to tell her he abandoned them, but she tells her the truth. There is nothing clearer than ‘I am not your father’. There is nothing clearer than the pure hatred Amelia feels in her heart as she comforts her daughter at two am because she dreamt her father was coming home again. They take walks with Buster, just the two of them, but he keeps refusing to move on, because  _he’s waiting._  He keeps barking they’ve lost someone, he keeps telling them they’re missing Jimmy. It breaks all of their hearts.  
Even on swimming parties, when she’s there to hang out with friends, Claire doesn’t go down waterslides no more.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, I hope you enjoyed it! c: If you'd want to reblog this, this is the link for [tumblr](http://mriareynolds.tumblr.com/post/148259498175/snapshots-of-ten-years-in-her-life-mriareynolds). Feel free to come say hi!


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